two questions

[brucet]

A couple of 'quick' questions.

1/ I'm editing some photos with a number of layers. Using many tools. At some point my image is getting a fine, one or two pixel. white line around any erased areas. ie I cut out a car. At some point the cutout has a very fine halo of white pixels added around it. I've back tracked but can't get to see where it's happening. Almost like an over sharpening artifact.
The attached may not show it due to upload limitations. The second crop shows a close up of the issue. See around the tire. I have two versions of the same file. One with the issue. One without. Maybe it's a save issue. (Always in PL format). I can do a lot of work then suddenly it appears. My only other guess is when I send a layer to PSP and back it's adding the extra few pixels. I've tested that theory but as I said it chooses when to appear at a random time. Strange. Why is appearing on one version and not the other?

2/ Is there an easy way to erase a straight line? ie 5 pixels wide. In PSP I can click a point, hold shift and click a second point. It erases a straight line.

regards

[Hoogo]

A couple of 'quick' questions.

1/ I'm editing some photos with a number of layers. Using many tools. At some point my image is getting a fine, one or two pixel. white line around any erased areas. ie I cut out a car. At some point the cutout has a very fine halo of white pixels added around it. I've back tracked but can't get to see where it's happening. Almost like an over sharpening artifact.
The attached may not show it due to upload limitations. The second crop shows a close up of the issue. See around the tire. I have two versions of the same file. One with the issue. One without. Maybe it's a save issue. (Always in PL format). I can do a lot of work then suddenly it appears. My only other guess is when I send a layer to PSP and back it's adding the extra few pixels. I've tested that theory but as I said it chooses when to appear at a random time. Strange. Why is appearing on one version and not the other?

2/ Is there an easy way to erase a straight line? ie 5 pixels wide. In PSP I can click a point, hold shift and click a second point. It erases a straight line.

regards

1) Just some ideas:
-Open the curves, select the alpha channel, pull the left end of the curve up to make the layer opaque. I guess the background turns white in one picture, and in the other the original background appears?
-Hard to tell from the small preview: Is the Alpha channel 1 bit black and white, or 8Bit Grey? For example, GIF only has 1Bit transparency, so all semi-transparent pixels have to be mixed with an assumed background color.
2) Hold shift, then press and hold the mouse button. Drag, release the shift key if you want to drag in any angle.

[brucet]

Thanks Hoogo.

I've found the 'artifact' culprit. I send the cutout to PSP and use the 'Fill light/Clarity' feature. All looks ok. But when I send it back to PL there is a faint artifact line. Then every time I use any adjustment in PL the 'artifact' is further exaggerated. So now I'm looking for a PL action that is as good and easy to use as the PSP 'Fill light/Clarity'. Yes I've tried the use of sharpening. In PL I use the Free Lasso to cutout my objects. I have it set to Soft Edge 1 and Width 1. What ever PSP is doing it can't handle the 'Soft Edge' of PL. And that's where the white artifact is coming from.

regards

[photoken]

brucet,
For "Clarity", I prefer using a HighPass adjustment layer with a blend mode of "Overlay". Adjust the radius of the HP layer to get very good control over the amount of sharpening -- from subtle to exaggerated.

For "Fill Light", have you tried a Highlight/Shadow adjustment layer?

[brucet]

Ken I've tried both methods. They work 'ok' but it's a matter of teaching the old dog to try new tricks!!!

regards

[photoken]

Hey, brucet,

It occurs to me that you might be asking for the impossible.

You're creating an image layer containing an object with indistinct edges. Then you're applying various adjustments to that image and expecting that those indistinct edges won't be affected. ?!

Consider what happens with the alternative: If you "cut out" (separate) the object from its original background by using a layer mask, the "cutting out" edges on the layer mask are entirely separate from the actual image pixels.

Therefore, you can apply any number of adjustments to the image pixels without affecting the edges in the layer mask that do the separating. The opposite is also true -- you can apply any number of adjustments to the separation edges (such as choking, spreading, blurring) without affecting the underlying image.

In your example image, the car is composed entirely of hard, distinct edges. That lends itself perfectly to the use of the Vector Lasso tool to create a vector clipping layer to separate the car from its original background. The edges of the clipping can be softened -- that's the "Clipping Width" -- and can be set either in the layer properties panel for the clipping layer or by using Layer...Clipping Layer...Clipping Width.

[brucet]

Oh Ken!! You see what I'm doing is exactly what I have been doing for several years with PSP. So all I'm trying to do is perform the same tasks within PL. The weak link is the jumping from PL to an external editor. For whatever reason PL and PSP don't want to play nice.

The more I get familiar with PL the less I need to use PSP. So one by one I'm eliminating the issues. I'm now in a position to use PL for most functions. It's only a matter of finding the time to put yours and other users suggestions into practice.

I'm comfortable with my work flow. Provided I can find suitable methods within PL I'm reluctant to develop new techniques. Within the play files I've been testing PL with are many elements that form my current techniques. So far PL is impressing me and I know I won't be going back to PSP unless for a few tidbits I can't figure out in PL. Yet!

regards

[photoken]

The more I get familiar with PL the less I need to use PSP. So one by one I'm eliminating the issues. I'm now in a position to use PL for most functions. It's only a matter of finding the time to put yours and other users suggestions into practice.

Sounds good. If it's any consolation, we've all gone through that....